JPMorgan Chase has announced a $150 million commitment in philanthropic capital and low-cost loans in support of Chicago's South Side and West Side communities.

Part of the company's five-year, $30 billion commitment announced in October 2020 to help advance racial equity, the funding will support job and skill training, neighborhood development, small business development, and financial services. Over the next five years, the initiative will work to connect five thousand individuals with high-quality career pathways by engaging a hundred employers in the effort and working with HIRE 360 to prepare candidates for apprenticeships and to preserve or create a thousand units of low-income housing, in part through a collaboration with the Community Investment Corporation. The effort also will include working with the Fund for Equitable Business Growth to help nine thousand small businesses receive services — and enabling at least a thousand minority business owners access capital — and empowering ten thousand individuals to improve their financial health by expanding access to high-quality services and products, including through Working Credit's financial coaching and credit-building program.

With the latest investments, JPMorgan Chase has committed a total of $800 million to expand economic opportunity for Black and Latinx communities and support an inclusive recovery in Chicago.

"By improving our business practices, making philanthropic investments, and supporting policies that result in sustainable change, JPMorgan Chase aims to address the barriers to economic success that many Black and Latinx communities face across Chicago," said Curtis Reed, Greater Chicagoland region manager of middle market banking at JPMorgan Chase Commercial Banking. "We'll promote homeownership, grow small businesses, and improve access to banking in areas of Chicago that need it most. We're encouraged by the impact of our recent investments — evidence that our model works."

(Photo credit: Working Credit)